THE NEW YORKER 51 BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS Revelations C HARLES DICKENS wrote "David Copperfield," and - presto! - la ws were passed discomfi tting the sneering villains who'd been bat- tening on the proceeds of child la- bor. Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and before you knew it, Conn cticut boys were sniping at Alabamians and vice versa, to the end that the Negro might be freed from the tyrant's yoke, and instead be permitted to run eleva- tors in office buildings. That great and good man, Mr. Timothy Shay Arthur, wrote "Ten Nights in a Bar- room," and look where we all are now. Need I say more to prove, in case r itz'-\;, " \ ';s\ ' . \1:\1 ::: you've ever doubted it, that the pen, as an instrument of propaganda, is mighti- er than the sword? Well, it would seem that once more the novelists are turning to reform. Already this season a number of books that read as much like cam- paign literature as fiction have been printed. This week we have two more to consider-one by Emile Gauvreau, ex-editor of the Graphic, and the other by a Stephen Endicott, whose name, it would appear, is really something else. M R. ENDICOTT'S book is called "Mayor Harding of New York," and is published by the Mohawk Press. I ts purpose is to dramatize the inside story of machine politics, and the pub- lishers assure us that it is in no sense a roman à clef, but rather a forecast of "what the future may hold in the way of graft and chicanery if existing methods are not reformed." One can only conclude, then, that in the author's , R,,_,j M't\' """; ' ti $" ,,#*" . t:: .,: < t ( '\ :' . ':." ':-. s- ) <"" .l-t-: , f '" , 3 . : :..... $' & .:... :.:--.- l ?HM i:; :.! !:> ':\;:':::; kfi * it! Yr ;;:; ...,.. ...1 ' 'fr . . ;f ' rt - o' r;A ' . , , ': :.::: t ç:::';,\..;:;:".\t' ;\,..':i%; ? .: . =: :". ; ..... .". .." " .. " . ;;';'\f/ ' : ...;. ' :'::' <">:::', ."'':<::'"'''''' .<<,,<<-: :;=<.,.. ';. .,.>. ' :.: ;:::.:7::L<:'::::' "X. ;i:.: .,.%,;, ' ' itÎ 5. ;rk '::'. 0) . , " ' f.:I;' J;'"'' :! ;I:.,.;.J. 'à *it J t 1J J1?t < ". ::' ;; "" i% : }"..;:: .:.: *1 WfS "t;,:.:=- " ::. . / t" )"{ : 17 '& ,...... · <' r' / ; :'.',i' .' . :<.' 1:' . ',' > . , }: "'.'\. , ; /- -; ;.; =-:. Jf ! .:.'.: ::' ". V. i% , / , l I'" ;1 1l{ . ..' ;. .;. t: { i/:' !i: I.!i;. ...... ,.,.:?i$ TT; .... . :. , ;. 6,(' >>- .. f.i lli , . ;; . , : . ' , . : . , : : . } .; f!tl i '::', a , 'A . 1 .-.:-:C M.' >. ::;-$.. :'::.,:' .... \. I'" j ::.=:. , ;. : I%. " <! :.:. I x;' ,; I , .. I'" J'ft ': i' . ... .;t t '>$ . \ . ' .::w' '.:-' !::" "':... . ' -:.:,'. , .-:",. ";." f ((1 don't mind filth if it's_clever." view the future will be astonishingly like the present. For the story con- cerns itself with such characters as a judge whose chumminess with prominent gangsters, w hen exposed, precIpItates a general inquiry in to the magistracy; another judge who disappears mys- teriously just before the investigation; a wealthy racketeer who gets killed in a room in a large hotel; a female blackmailer, also murdered under rather odd circumstances; and a number of others, all curiously simi- lar to various personages whose do- ings have been occupying us lately. The mayor himself is portrayed as a dapper, flashy, rather foolish figure, out for his own fun and not interested much in anything else. Now, I have no very great objection to the roman à clef, of itself. To be sure, it has been used to convey spiteful innuendo; on the other hand, the libel laws being what they are, it offers the only means for an author, unless he has pretty solid evidence to back him up, to present his idea of the motives hehind contemporary happenings. The trouhle with Mr. Endicott's book, as propaganda, is that, even supposing it were (as of course it isn't) about the politicians of today instead of about those of a hypothetical future, it would even then tell us little of their conduct that has not already heen pretty broadly hinted at, and at times, even, direct- ly proved. Mr. Endicott's urge for reform, in other words, came on him a little too late to have its full effect. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but both are pretty useless unless they're used in the forefront of the attack. As a story, however, the book IS rapid, vivid, and quite well wrItten Oddly enough, it suffered a little, as I read it, from a curious re- semblance to a book of quite different character-Dashiell Hammett's "The Glass Key." Both are written in the same laconic, matter-of-fact style; in- ciden ts follow on each other, in each, in the same fragmentary fashion. Both ha ve a wise young fellow, cynical, flip- pant, and very much in the know, as the principal character; and a story which teaches that a murder must never be solved if doing so will inter-